our business

Environment & Sustainability

Blue is the new Green…

One of the key priorities during construction was to ensure that when we opened our doors in 1999, Europe’s leading retail and leisure destination was efficiently designed.

Sustainability is an integral part of Bluewater’s culture. Making a difference in the community, improving health and safety standards, and reducing environmental impacts are central to our business strategy.

As improved technologies have become available, our Facilities Management team have continually modernised the energy and waste infrastructure to ensure Bluewater continues to make a difference in the community and remain at the forefront of sustainability within the retail and leisure sector.

Bluewater is managed by Land Securities, the largest commercial property company in the UK.

Operational Standards

The facility team are accredited with ISO9001 (quality), ISO14001 (environment), ISO50001 (energy) and ISO18001 (occupational health and safety).

Utilities - Recovery Consumption

As a Land Securities managed asset Bluewater has set challenging energy and carbon reduction targets. Bluewater will reduce its energy and carbon intensity by 40% by 2030 on a 2013/14 baseline. In the past year Bluewater has completed a project which enables passive ventilation of the malls. This has saved Bluewater over £100,000 per annum in avoided.

Water usage has always been a key issue and Bluewater have set business targets to reduce its consumption. Due to the need for frequent flushing for hygiene and odour reduction purposes, urinals are by far the biggest water users in the bathroom and our research programme showed an average usage for each urinal of 108,816 litres per annum. The Property Management team implemented a water upgrade programme that included the refurbishment of washrooms and the inclusion of waterless urinals by retro-fit in 2010. These have reduced the usage of potable water by over ten million litres per year and in monetary terms, a saving of £30,000 per annum is being achieved.

Lighting

We are committed to a continual process of upgrading of the lighting technologies at Bluewater to ensure that they are as efficient as possible. For example, we are trailing new sensor and LED technologies in our multi storey car parks that could reduce our electrical consumption by up to 80%.

Waste Management

Bluewater is proud that it has achieved 100% diversion from Landfill since June 2009, we currently recycle over 90% of all waste being produced on the site.

Bluewater has also partnered with the British Heart Foundation and donates old and unwanted furniture items to them for recondition and resale through their outlet in Woolwich.

Bluewater Waste Management Statistics:

Bluewater has sent zero waste to landfill since 2008

Working towards 100% recycling and regularly achieving over 90%

Over 9,486 tonnes of waste recycled in 2016

Over 404 tonnes of food waste recycled in 2016

In 2016 over 588 tonnes of cardboard and 380 tonnes of glass were be sent for re-manufacturing

315kg of CO2 is saved per tonne of glass recycled after taking into account the transportation and processing

Environment & Biodiversity

Bluewater operates an active Biodiversity Management Strategy that recognises iconic, rare and protected species and habitats at the asset. The strategy revolves around a commitment to protect, preserve and ultimately enhance and expand 5 key habitats that contain 27 nationally rare and protected species of plants and animal located alongside 1 million trees and shrubs within the 155 hectare estate.

Green Travel Plan

Working with local partners including Kent County Council, Kent Highways and local transport operations, Bluewater is promoted as the central hub for transport within the immediate community and sub-region. This ensures that both staff and guests are able to travel to and from Bluewater as easily as possible while reducing congestion and improving air quality around the centre.

Green Fleet

We now have a fleet of 4 electrical vehicles including 2 electric motorcycles and have plans submitted to expand by an additional 3 battery-powered utility vehicles.